Rain, glorious rain

Had a lovely fall of rain last night, the steady soaking sort that the town has really needed. Just to prove me wrong in my assertions that summer is on its way, it's a lovely cool day today. I've been to the library and dropped off my second child to kindy, the youngest is in bed for her nap, and the eldest already at school, and so when I finish this I'm off to settle down with a new book. I've got to get away from my normal genre of crime, so picked a Thomas Kenneally novel entitled "Three Cheers for the Paraclete".

Our town library is a great resource, as most small-town libraries are. They hold a couple of children's rhyme and story time sessions during the week, have a large collection of children's books, DVDs, videos and talking books (these are particularly great on the long road journeys we take) and welcome children with open arms. It's a stark difference to the libraries I remember from my younger days, when stern librarians would shoosh you and make you wish you could afford to buy books instead of borrowing them from the library. The kids have a lovely time and aren't forbidden to make any noise. Mine sometimes unfortunately think it's party time and whoop and carry on a little too loudly even for me. But the librarians have never spoken harshly to them or made us feel as though we shouldn't be there.

So to my couch and Thomas Kenealley, before the end of school. May get a few pages in.

Nameless Festival 2010

Another year in the Pilbara and another Nameless Festival has come and gone. Last year we sighed as we snuggled up in bed on Parade Day, knowing we didn't have to get out in the cold. But a new year has come and our second child is in kindy and so it was time to get him dressed and ready for his big day out.

The Nameless Festival is really just a small-town fair, when the carnival comes to town and our kids get to decorate trucks in the style of the theme of the festival (this year's being Around the World) and walk or be carried in the back of the truck from Lions Park to the fair grounds at the footy oval. It's not a long parade and most of the spectators are parents whose children are parading. So the children at our school were asked to dress in another country's national costume. Fortunately, we have lots of Maasai cloth we brought back from Tanzania and so we dressed our boy in some of that. You'll note from the picture that there is a little gender confusion as he has the women's necklace on and is holding a beaded Maasai club. We just thought it looked good, and so we apologise if we've made any cultural faux pas.

The Festival is also an indicator that the end of the year is near and the weather is about to warm up. Winter is the best time here as we have the most beautiful warm days of around 25 degrees and then we can cool down in the evenings to a "chilly" (for us) temperature of sometimes 2 or 3 degrees. It rarely rains in winter - although after a dry summer, some of us wished it had this year. So Nameless Festival is the time that the weather is starting to change and we can look forward to another hot, hot, hot summer.

The kids also have a lovely time on the fair amusements as well as eating lots of very bad food (other than the very good devonshire teas provided by the combined church group). Since we had only just got back from holidays, we decided the kids could forego a show bag this year. We also missed the fireworks on Friday night as we'd had a long week, having travelled from New Zealand to Perth all day Sunday and then travelling 16 hours in the car on Tuesday from Perth to Tom Price, and our kids couldn't stay awake for them. So thus comes to an end winter and the Nameless Festival weekend 2010. Time to look forward to the weather warming up and the pool being used again.

Holidays

Lake Wanaka

All rugged up for the day

Queenstown, New Zealand.

Have been back from New Zealand for a week now and we are still riding high from an exhilerating holiday. Wow! What a beautiful country, especially the alpine region where we spent most of our time. It couldn't be more different from Tom Price, with its large pristine lakes, huge snowed capped mountains and freezing temperatures. It really is a special part of the world.


We spent eight glorious days in Wanaka and skiied for five days at the Cardrona resort. They provided very good family facilities, such as kindy, ski kindy and ski school for our three children. Our eldest, who turned 8 during our holiday, became quite a proficient skiier and had an "awesome" time. As we guessed, he took to it like a duck to water and shamed me. My husband, who had never skiied before, and I, who had only every skiied very badly twice before, took lessons too. Of course, being all macho and wonderful, my husband just loved it all and pushed himself to the limit. He really did a great job and was able to ski the intermediate (blue) slopes long before me. I am a cautious person, and was happy to stay on the beginners (green) slopes until the last day when I was finally confident enough to tackle one blue slope very slowly. But it has certainly given us a taste for more skiing holidays. So it looks like we may be donning the gloggles, headwear and thermals again in the near future, especially given the northern hemisphere winter will be soon upon us. All we need to do now is find the money to finance it.

Masterchef

Well, I hate to admit it, but I have become a mad fan of the Australian version of Masterchef. Even my husband, who rarely sits down to watch TV, has embraced the program. We can barely believe it as the product placement advertising is really over the top, but it has been fascinating watching these so-called amateur cooks tackle challenges so well.

I personally don't think I'd enjoy a lot of the dishes they present and am getting a little over the restaurant presentation, especially the molecular gastronomy meals. They are utterly preposterous! I guess that has a lot to do with having been out of the mainstream restaurant scene for many years after living in the outback and not having access to city-style restaurants and bistros. We're just lucky if we can get a decent steak cooked well, with some relatively well-cooked veges, so I guess this is where our fascination with the program emanates.

But it has spurred my cooking efforts. I recently bought a Donna Hay cookbook (see how the advertising spin-off has got me) and am really inspired by its simple meals. Besides, I found I could actually buy many of the ingredients at our one and only supermarket. That's always my biggest consideration when cooking. There have been days when I haven't been able to get simple staples like potatoes or eggs. I know, it's unbelievable in what we consider to be a first-world country, but that's the tyranny of distance for you. And due to the fact the food delivery trucks only come on certain days of the week with certain items, if an item is sold out, we just have to wait. For example, since Sunday I have been wanting to cook my husband's favourite meal of Finnish meatballs, but there has been no pork mince in the shop. So we'll just wait.

I have however been baking up a storm with my new break maker. I have found that it's so much better to just let the machine knead the dough and store it until I can tip it out and fashion it into either savoury or sweet buns or loaves of bread. Our favourite are cinnamon buns - another craving of my husband's. Although of course I never make them quite like his Finnish mother used to. I have found, however, that the kids much prefer mum's freshly baked bread to the frozen offerings at the shop, and they even eat the crusts. My middle boy will even eat the bread without butter or any topping, crusts and all. For fussy eaters, this is a fabulous win for me. I couldn't be happier.

It's a far world away from the gastronomic feats of our Masterchef contestants, but it's inspiration anyway, and is another connection to another world, that we may join again one day. Oh, to be able to shop for fresh meat at a butcher, or stroll the aisles of a fresh-food market in a big city, or even find the basic ingredients for meatballs!

Food, Fun & Farm Life in East Africa

Ok, I just have come back after such a long time away and read a surprising comment from a wonderful fellow blogger. It was such a surprise that's it sparked me to add a few comments now, almost 12 months later. I can't believe it's now the middle of 2010!

I have just read that Lynda, the fellow blogger, has taken some time off her blog due to personal reasons and it's such a blow to me. She is an amazing woman and a couple of years ago she began blogging about her life on a farm in Tanzania . She started by posting twice a day. What an effort! She inspires me with her love of her new-found home in Tanzania and her cooking feats. Having lived in her part of the world, I understand what an effort is involved in sourcing many of the food items we take for granted here.

Today I want to send out some encouraging karma to her and hope that whatever it is that is troubling her life ends soon.

If you're interested her blog is Food, Fun & Farm life in East Africa.